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A very good evening to you @oriskany.
Luckily for the Russians the T-60 and T-70 could be built in any factory that could build a car. Both used a reversed engineered Ford truck motor.
So they have a habit off turning up. As the Germans enter Stalingrad the Russians had 40 tanks deployed in it on the west bank of the Volga. Of which 25 were T-70’s. I believe this to be a good place for the T-70’s to strut their stuff. They are small, hide almost anywhere. At this point in the war that nasty little 45mm can take down most of my tanks a short range and has just enough front armour to possibly survive any hit from my pea shooters. Perhaps one of my interest in the last half of Jan is that this German Army is not the army you find in the documentaries. It is weak and fragmented. The army list I will start off with reflects this. I have never used a German Army that is remotely like it.
I also came across blind T-34’s in my research, one source claims they could lose as much as 60% of the light from this defect. At this loss rate the sight was only useful in bright sunny light days, a rarity in Russian weather conditions.
Yes FoW also has rules has rules that reflect the early T-34’s have not hit their stride. They are over worked meaning that if you move and fire a tank it has an additional +1 to its score need to hit. At this stage the tank is hit by the enemy only on a 2+ that will be increased by other factors such as range and cover. This is off set by its thick armour, but you cannot rely on it. This is not the case with T-34’s from Kursk onwards. The Valentine on the other-hand does not have as many restrictions but had its own bad habits. I like the way they use the stats in a different way to bring things like this into the game now in such a way that fits the level of warfare that the game sits in. Don’t worry I know it is not a favorite of yours so in no way I am trying to sell it to you. I am only informing you about the new rules that enrich the game to me.
How I will end up using this German Army will be interesting and a handful. The quick answer it that it is broken. It is not the well oiled machine that is basically very good at spring itself. I am being just as hard on myself historically as I am the Russians. The German Army that I have under the command of Paulus and rebuilding just started has fragmented this machine.
Tanks and equipment have been stripped from mostly AGC and a bit from AGN as it is facing off at Leningrad and sad to support AGC at Rzhev. However they are only starting to trickle in. Some units of 6th Army have been taken off the line to be stripped and rebuilt under the new structure.
So I have under strength tank units basically 3 Pz-4’s acting as my artillery supports. My company of Pz-3’s has been reduced to company commander, 1 troop of 3 tanks and 1 troop of 4 tanks and Paulus has them in deep reserve.
My Panzer troop battalion has been collapsed to 2 near strength platoons. 2 heavy HMGs in support, 2 7.5 cm infantry guns. I do have 2 of the new 5cm AT guns, but that is all that has been delivered. I have 2 SD-222’s and 1 SD-221 in tactical reserve to call on but it will be 3 or more turns to arrive, if Paulus does not change his mind. This totals 100 points. I get to start in improved positions in the form of trenches, light barricades and a few mines. I have been hard with myself but it historical represents a German defence point in the opening of the Izyum bridgehead. You have probably detected words not normally used in FoW but processes had to be added to re-fight this battle. In the battles after this the armies will be larger and I will have more options for integrated support.
Now to put this in a points cost perspective Yarrick can get 10 Valentines for 24 points and 20 T-60 tanks for 18 points. Giving him already 3 companies which makes his formation harder to break. If he opens up his T-60’s upon my infantry he will be rolling 60 dice of MG fire power turn. My infantry regardless of how they are dug in are going to evaporate in very short order. If they use there 20mm cannons at short range on the sides of my PZ-3’s they can penetrate, considering the numbers involved they will penetrate.
Getting back to my force on the 18th Jan my force is just an averaged representation of the dug in static Battlegroup of the time. Some of the more interesting groups were more eclectic than my Finns. Like one was based around a very reduced battalion of infantry. Just like my group it could nearly raise two full strength platoons. It had 1 50mm AT gun, one 105mm gun, 4 HMGs, three 50mm and two 80mm mortars, some light barricades and a few mines. They were holding a village that was built on some cross roads. They had to hold this against two Russian regiments supported by a company of tanks. This is just not the German Army that people read about in 42. They are used to ready about Case Blau and taking of the Don. But that is exactly why I love it.
The thing I like about Glantz is that the man just keeps giving in his books. In his 2nd Kharkov book he shows the Stalin wanted a quick offensive to retake Kharkov. Timoshenko wants time to build up two Fronts and create a Direction. Timoshenko virtually inflates this request into pushing AGS out of Russia and then threaten AGC from the rear and everyone will love me. Glantz in his appendix translates communiques into English. Where you can really see how Timoshenko’s grab for power goes belly up.
Stalin asks if his plan is really feasible. Timoshenko reassures him it is and requests extra time for the build up.
Stalin gives him the requested time plus an extra two weeks on top of his request. Stalin asks others is this feasible like Zharkov and they say no. Stalin sends Khrushchev down to the Southwest Direction to check things out. Timoshenko somehow turns Khrushchev into a believer. As we go into the battle Stalin starts to suspect things are not right about these two. So he starts to bypass them and goes to the staff of Timoshenko’s staff officers of South-Western front and the commander and staff of southern front. They say things are going pear shaped. Stalin pretend to know nothing and starts questioning Timoshenko and Khrushchev but also hands then a proverbial spade to did their own grave. First they say everything is going to plan, then they both lie about it and finally they point the finger of blame at just about everyone, add admit it has gone pear shaped but it was not their fault. Stalin’s reply was sent to all commands involved placing the blame at their feet and goes on point after point ridiculing and belittling them for their actions. I am amazed that he did not have Timoshenko shot and Khrushchev found many excuse on why he could not return to Moscow just like he did at Stalingrad. It was fascinating reading these translations and watching how Stalin plays with them.
Reading the early ones I get more of a feeling that it was a last ditch power play that failed and he will never command a Front again and his rival, Zhukov goes from strength to strength. I don’t understand how Timoshenko could believe he could pull this off. Zhukov was it off his league. He did not ask and answer two critical questions.
1. When Zhukov was not on the field of battle where was he?
Answer: With Stalin.
2. When Timoshenko was not on the field of battle where was he?
Answer: He was still in the field.
I don’t remember exactly how long Rzhev ran for but it was just over the year and was perhaps the longest running battle on the Eastern Front.
A few weeks ago I got @timp764 to sit down and watch the Soviet Storm episode on Rzhev. I like their graphics where they show you images of a soldier representing so many men and show how many men survived. Then they zoom out, out again and a gain to show you how many did not make it.
@timp764 was shocked at the casualties and loss of equipment. This was because of his documentary diet and so thought that this kind of loss he associated to Stalingrad and maybe Kursk. Now he is just starting to understand that anything to do with the Eastern Front you get a free upgrade to super sized. It really had his interest and wants to investigate wargame wise the Rzhev slaughter house and some of the important battles of AGC before we move onto 1943. So a have sparked some interest in the lesser known battles so we could be doing 42 for a bit longer than expected. While he was over here today he coined an amusing term. He was trying to find a way to describe how some battles like Stalingrad, Moscow and Kursk hogs all the line light keeping interesting battles in the dark. He referred to them as the “tourist trap” battles. That is how he looks at them from a perspective of someone like himself who is trying to take his first serious look at the Eastern Front from a wargames point of view.
